Act 16: Echoes of the Past
by The Admiral
Summary: Angel is very talkative, Roger finds out much about his past and Big O's...
1. Default Chapter

As with everything, I don't own any characters or the show etc etc etc.  
I'm not making any money with this, and I have basically none, so there's no point in sueing. You've all seen this before, so you get the pic.  
  
  
Act 16: Echoes of the Past  
  
  
R. Dorothy Waynewright was, for possibly the first time in her existence, puzzled by something other than humans. The data disc she had found in the Paradigm records room contained a huga amount of information, all heavily coded. For the last month she had been attempting to break the code, and had been making very slow progress. But now it was time to put code-breaking and all that other unpleasant buisness aside. She brought her fingers down on the piano keys, starting with a sonata that would end when Roger awoke. Moments later-  
  
"Dorothy! How many times have I told you-"  
  
"That you do not like my waking you with music? More times than even I can count." She stared at him for a moment, then turned her eyes back to the music. Roger just groaned, cedeing the argument before it had really begun, and stumbled back into his room.  
  
At breakfast, Dorothy popped yet another question at the Negotiator. "Roger, if you had a problem that you had tried to solve, but could not find an answer to, how would you react?"  
  
Roger gulped down the last bite of eggs and looked down the length of the table at her. "I'd step back, take another look at what I was dealing with, and try to approach it from another angle. Use different tactics, if the ones I've already tried haven't worked. Why, what's got you so stumped?"  
  
Dorothy regarded him for a moment, then stood. She pushed the chair in, faced the wall, and to one dainty step backwards.  
  
"I didn't mean literally, Dorothy." said Roger, a trace of amusement in his voice.  
  
Dorothy shot him a brief death stare, then looked into the distance. Suddenly, her eyes flew open and a blinding light shone from them. She cried out, and collapsed.  
  
"Dorothy!" Roger abandoned his plate and rushed to her side.  
  
  
When she awoke again, she was in the repair center that was familiar from their last encounter with Beck. Norman was bent over a computer screen, and Roger was anxiously standing nearby.  
  
"What happ-" she started to rise, but Norman turned and cut her off.  
  
"Miss Dorothy, I would advise staying put. You have had quite a severe shock, and I do not want to push your systems any further than they have been." She nodded and reclined.  
  
Roger had the most sincere expression of concern on his face she had ever seen. He turned to his butler. "What exactly happened, Norman?"  
  
The one-eyed man studied the screen for a moment, then turned. "As near as I can tell, Mis Dorothy's systems were flooded with data from an unknown source. It was to much for her proccesors to handle, and they began to overload. Built-in safties shut her down entirely before the damage became permanent."  
  
"What do you mean, unknown source? Did someone attack her?"  
  
"No, Roger." Dorothy sat up, despite Norman's protests. "It was this." She opened the reader slot in her head and removed the disc there. "I have been attempting to decode the information on it for nearly a month now, and what you said at breakfast gave me the key. I was simply unprepared for what I found."  
  
Roger was clearly confused and anxious, perhaps hoping to find a guilty party and grind them into the ground with Big O's pile-drivers. "So...what did you find? And where did this thing come from?"  
  
Had she been human, he imagined she would have taken a deep breath before continuing. "I discovered it in one of Paradigm's record store-rooms, the day you fought Swartzvald and his Red Megadeuce. I believed it to have something to do with that 'Angel' character you so frequently encounter."  
  
"Um...yeah, about that 'Angel' character..." He still had not mentioned her mysterious appearance in a resurrected Big Duo, but he let Dorothy continue.  
  
"I now know it contains information about..." She hesitated, looking at them both. Roger made an urgent gesture that meant 'get on with it,' so she finished her sentance. "...about the Event that happened 40 years ago, that leveled half the city and erased all the memories of the people here. I have not had a chance to sort through it all yet, but what I have found so far is very intruiging." She was rather satisfied with the look of complete shock on Roger's face.  
  
"What did you-"  
  
"-Find? I think I can answer that for you, and in a much shorter time."  
  
Roger spun, to find Angel leaning against the doorframe. "You're lucky that only beautiful young women are allowed to enter my home unconditionally. Otherwise I'd have to ask you to leave."  
  
Angel smirked. "You won't want me to leave, after you hear what I have to say, Roger Smith. Though I must say, I appreciate the compliment." 


	2. Part Two

As with everything, I don't own any characters or the show etc etc etc.  
I'm not making any money with this, and I have basically none, so there's no point in sueing. You've all seen this before, so you get the pic.  
  
  
  
"Here you are, Miss. Just as you requested." Norman set the teacup down, bowed, and retreated to the kitchen. Angel took a long drink before replacing the cup on its dish.  
  
"So what is it you have to tell me that's so important? And what does it have to do with that disc Dorothy found?"  
  
"Speaking of which, I'd like it back. It is my property, after all."  
  
Roger grimaced, and was about to rebuke Angel when Dorothy handed her the disc. "Here. Here you go. I have no more use for it."  
  
"Why'd you take it if you won't use it?" Roger exclaimed.  
  
Dorothy gave him one of her long, cold stares. "I said I have no more use for it. I already copied the contents to one of my memory banks."  
  
"Oh. Norman, can we have some privacy for a minute?"  
  
Roger turned to Norman, and missed Angel and Dorothy locking gazes. Then Dorothy moved around an sat next to Roger.  
  
"I suppose the best place to start with, as always, is the beginning. You should know that up until the Event, this was not Paradigm City. Gordon Rosewater gave it that name soon after he came to power."  
  
"What was it before then?"  
  
Angel looked up at Roger. "You should stop interrupting people while theyy're talking, Negotiator. It's a bad habit."  
  
Smith grinned one of his most devious. "Sorry. Go on."  
  
"Before the Event, this was New York, just one city out of hundreds that made up a nation. It acted as a port for ships traveling out across the ocean, and aircraft as well. It was not even the capitol of that nation, just another big city on the coast." She took another sip of her drink before continuing. "You should know that your Megadeuce, Roger, was one of several dozen stationed here as a military garrison. What we call the Event was just the first shot in a global war of immense proportions. In fact, your Megadeuce in particular was of pivotal importance in the battle that devastated the city. As was its pilot..."  
  
"...A Mr. Jonathan Smith."  
  
Roger was taken aback. Smith was a common enough name, surely-  
  
"Yes Roger, he was your father. If he and that Megadeuce had emerged victorious that day forty years ago, the city and in fact the world would not be plunged into the dark age we know today." Angel glanced at Dorothy, and smiled. "I suppose it would also interest you to know that his wife was the woman she was modeled after."  
  
Both Roger and Dorothy were suprised this time. Norman, conviniently just outside the doorway, slowly shook his head and returned to the kitchen.  
  
"You mean-"  
  
"I was modeled after-"  
  
"His mother, yes."  
  
Roger's mind was racing. "But that's impossible! Timothy Waynewright lost his daughter in the Event, and I was born long after! How could she be my mother?"  
  
Angel sighed. "She didn't die forty years ago, she was just seperated from her father. Their mutual loss of memory made her forget him completely, so he never heard from her again and thought she was dead. She and her husband went into hiding with your Megadeuce, and the city was ravaged. Shortly after you were born, Roger, they were mysteriously killed in an accident. All memory of the Megadeuce was lost."  
  
"But I lived."  
  
"Yes. You were only 2 years old at the time, and Alex Rosewater believed that you must have some subliminal memories of your parents and their past. He placed you in what was known as Project: Total Recall."  
  
Those words stirred something in Roger. "Those other people Red Destiny killed, they were-"  
  
Angel nodded. "Others like you. Gordon Rosewater headed the project after resigning from his position at the head of the corporation, but when he finally retired, it simply collapsed. Most of the children were released onto the streets, except for you. An old friend of your father's put in a good word or two, and you instead wound up in an orphanage."  
  
"The only place I remember growing up."  
  
"Project Recall was designed to restore memories of the times before the Event by placing them in the minds of children, but you were placed there because of what Rosewater suspected you already knew. The project died before he got what he wanted, but that changed when you found the Megadeuce."  
  
"That was what he wanted from me! Where my father had hidden it!"  
  
"Yes. You see, Rosewater has some memories of the times before the Event, and wants to restore them. To do that, however, he needs an operational Megadeuce. And not something like the walking corpses that demolished half the city two weeks back, something much more impressive than that. He had been trying to get his hands on yours, but when Swartsvald showed up in a red Megadeuce that flew, Rosewater changed his mind. He decided to put it back together and have Red Destiny eliminate you so he was unchallenged."  
  
"But when Red Destiny was threatening me, she ranted about the Megadeuces being the scacred chariots of mankind, and how their pilots were supposed to be commanded."  
  
Angel smirked again. "Who would have thougt that Alex Rosewater has a sense of humor? He was the one who programmed her. All that talk about being commanded and sacred chariots was in reference to their use as super-soldiers in the ancient armies."  
  
"But she kept talking about destiny." Roger now realized that all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. If only-  
  
"That was in referance to you inheriting your father's piloting skill, and finding his same Megadeuce. She was really there to just make sure you wouldn't be able to stop Rosewater."  
  
"Roger, who is the Red Destiny person you are talking about? Was she the android who attacked you?" Dorothy had her eyes focused on his now.  
  
"Yea, but there's something else..."  
  
"What, you mean you haven't told her yet? Ha!" Angel seemed to find something funny, because she just sat back and watched Roger try to wriggle out from under Dorothy's gaze.  
  
"Not only was she an android, she looked exactly like you, Dorothy. Same face, same voice, same dress in fact, but with a red cloak over it. I thought you and her were one and the same until I saw you in Bg O's cockpit."  
  
Dorothy pondered this information for a moment, then turned and stood. "I see. I had wondered where she had gotten too." With this she went out onto the balcony, leaving Roger stunned yet again.  
  
"You stay here. I'll be right back." He pointed an imposing finger at Angel, who merely shrugged and took another drink. 


	3. Part Three

As with everything, I don't own any characters or the show etc etc etc.  
I'm not making any money with this, and I have basically none, so there's no point in sueing. You've all seen this before, so you get the pic.  
  
  
  
Dorothy had assumed her usual position on the railing of the mansion when Roger caught up with her. "What did you mean, Dorothy? How did you know about Red Destiny?"  
  
She turned, and sat on the stone rail. "I didn't. I did know, however, that I was not the first R. Dorothy Waynewright."  
  
"Huh??"  
  
"The android you encountered must have been an earlier prototype, a version that my father and Soldarno created while trying to build me. In effect, we were sisters."  
  
"I see. And how many more of your 'sisters' are still out there somewhere?"  
  
"Only one ever vanished without a trace. The rest were recycled. Her phyisical form copied the original Dorothy perfectly, but her proggramming left something to be desired. One night, she reacted violently to my father trying work on her circuits, and fled. He searched, but had given up long before you and I met."  
  
She looked in throught the window at Angel, who saw them and waved. "But anyone who knew what they were doing could have copied her systems exactly, Roger. If Rosewater examined her thouroughly enough, he could have an endless number of androids to send after you. All of which look identical to me."  
  
Roger shuddered. "Having one Dorothy around the house is bad enough, but an army of them?"  
  
She turned to him. "I have forgotten to remind you that you are a louse, M. Smith. Just so you do not forget that fact." With that she pushed off the rail and started back towards the door.  
  
"Hey! Wait!"  
  
  
"Is there anything else we should know?" Roger inquired of Angel as he came back inside.  
  
"Yes. Now that Rosewater knows Red Destiny has failed, he'll still try to eliminate you. You and your Megadeuce pose too much of a threat to his plans."  
  
"So do you think he'll use Big Duo, or another killer android?"  
  
"What's Big Duo?"  
  
Roger blinked, then remember that aside from himself, Dorothy, Norman, and Swartzvald, nobody knew what the two Megadeuces had been named. "That's what Swartzvald called his Megadeuce. You know, the one you took for a joyride the other night?" He smirked again. "I can't imagine that Rosewater was happy at that, especially since you saved my hide."  
  
Angel smiled ferally. "I know as well as you do that once Rosewater has his hands on a functional Megadeuce, nothing will stop him. I decided that it would be better if I kept him waiting a bit longer."  
  
Roger puzzled over her words, then laughed. "Angel, don't tell me you've stolen his Megadeuce!!"  
  
"What better way for an angel to fly, but in style? Though I don't quite like the color scheme. I wonder where I can find enough pink paint..."  
  
"I believe, Miss Angel, that we have sufficient quantities stored in the supplies downstairs," said Norman. "I always keep the basic colors in stock, should Master Roger have a change in his fashion sense, or lack thereof."  
  
Angel burst out laughing, and Roger could've sworn that Dorothy's lips moved slightly upwards at the ends, but he was not amused. Norman's occasional threat to paint Big O pink to get Roger to do something was no longer a joking matter.  
  
Angel finally managed to stop her laughter, and wiped away a single tear. "There is one more thing I think you should know, Roger."  
  
"Really? You've answered most of my questions."  
  
"Don't you wonder about what happened to your parents?"  
  
Roger was suddenly enveloped in a flood of memories. Memories of his earliest childhood, of a warm motherly face comforting him to bed every night, of a stalward father who was proud of his son, of a life so different than his own he had trouble accepting the memories. He recalled the moment he had awoken in the catacombs deep beneath the city, mistakenly calling Dorothy his mother. At least that reaction was explained, now. All this flashed past in an instant. "Yes, Angel, I admit you have my interest peaked."  
  
The blonde woman pursed her lips, and Roger knew what she had to say was not good news. "Your parents died in a fire, Roger. The home you grew up in burst into flames, one night. The same good friend of your father's who kept you from winding up on the street later saved you from that fire, but your parents were lost. I've looked at the old police records, and they didn't think it was an accident. All the evidence pointed to arson, but they never caught their suspect."  
  
"Who was it? Who did they suspect?!?"  
  
"There wasn't much known about the man, except that he had dealings with the Corporation. Rosewater himself knew the guy, and expressed his shock that such a thing could happend publicly." She looked up at Roger. "Almost as if he were covering his tracks."  
  
The words sunk deep into his soul, to the very depths of his heart, where memories long dead awoke with a ferocity that overwhelmed his senses. His parents, lost so long ago, with all the evidence pointing to Rosewater as having them eliminated. His chance for a normal life destroyed before it had even come. He had not known them, and recalled his parents only in the deepest, darkest corner of his mind, but still he mourned for them, and he knew what he had to do. He rose, shaking, and ran out of the room. "Roger!" Angel called. She rose, and halfway followed him. "Don't try anything stupid!!"  
  
Norman realized what Angel had, and hurried of in hot pursuit. But Roger had too good of a lead, and just as Norman reached the repair bay--  
  
Big O vanished downwards, to the tunnels beneath the city, hurtling towards the central dome, with a pilot on the brink of insanity, and only one thing on his mind...  
  
Vengance...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
  
Talk about cliffhangers! :P  
Send in those reviews if you want more!!  
  
To anybody who wonders why I say Paradigm City is New York, notice this:  
  
The river Bonnie Frazier fell into was called the Hudson...  
  
Roger first met Big Duo at the ruins of the JFK international airport...  
  
Could Electric City have been Niagra falls? If so, Big O's underground train is awfully fast!  
  
Just give it some thought! 


End file.
